· Private foundation
John H & Ann Ghrist Family Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| VISITING NURSE SERVICES OF IOWA DBA EVERYSTEP | $5,000 |
| IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| FOOD BANK OF IOWA | $3,000 |
| EDMUNDSON ART FOUNDATION INC (DES MOINES ART CENTER) | $2,000 |
| GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN | $2,000 |
| IOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
| DES MOINES PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
| IOWA PUBLIC RADIO INC | $1,500 |
| IOWA PUBLIC TELEVISION FOUNDATION | $1,500 |
| SALISBURY HOUSE FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| WEST DES MOINES LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION - REMOVING BARRIERS FOR EDUCATION | $1,000 |
| CASS RESOURCES FOR ENRICHMENT (CARE) | $1,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY18–19, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +44% since the first grant, against +18% for the ones you funded once.
22 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 68% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $9k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- FBFOOD BANK OF IOWA8× · 2017–2024 · $44k · revenue +228%
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2024 · $40k · revenue +1%- EAEdmundson Art Foundation Inc7× · 2017–2024 · $13k · revenue +53%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $10k
- DMDES MOINES SYMPHONY FOUNDATIONone grant, 2022 · $3k · revenue -89%
- ESEVERY STEPone grant, 2021 · $2k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Engage the midwest in meaningful entertainment, education, and cultural activities. provide performing arts experiences that educate, inspire and challenge.
The foundation is organized to further the growth and development of private colleges and universities of higher education in iowa.
Common good iowa engages iowans to create and advocate for research-based public policy that makes life better and more equitable for all who make iowa home.
Raise funds for renovation and preservation of the historic Iowa State Fairgrounds by soliciting gifts, donations, bequests and grants to help finance infrastructure projects to guarantee the Fair continues to be Iowa's great celebration,…
Founded in 1995 as the philanthropic arm of the iowa credit union league and guided by the credit union philosophy of "people helping people", the iowa credit union foundation (the foundation) works to champion financial well-being for…
Promoting, for the benefit and education of the general public, the preservation and interpretation of the history of the state of iowa.
To improve member newspapers
The des moines water works park foundation is dedicated to developing and executing the master plan created for water works park. the plan turns the park into a national model incorporating recreation, education and conservation within the…
The foundation for the iowa city community school district connects the community with our schools to ensure every student has extraordinary learning experiences. together we empower teachers and district staff and inspire students to…
The foundation was structured to encourage funding of the jewish federation of greater des moines, and is responsible for adding financial stability by broadening the funding base and thereby improving the ability of the des moines jewish…
Iowa sister states is dedicated to connecting iowans with the world community. our mission is to develop and implement international partnerships and programs that promote the cultural, economic, and other interests of iowa and its friends…
To build and support diverse communities of writers and audiences through the transformative power of story. We lead by inclusion and collaboration, celebrating the emotions, discovery and connections inspired by the written word in all…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Des Moines Community Playhouse and the most unlike its peers is Cass Resources for Enrichment. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 44 years old; the field is 55. You back the younger end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 7% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 4% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
24 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 24 of the 36 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds FOOD BANK OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Edmundson Art Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds IOWA PUBLIC RADIO INC ↗
- Who funds IOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LIVING HISTORY FARMS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds DES MOINES COMMUNITY PLAYHOUSE ↗
- Who funds HOSPICE OF CENTRAL IOWA ↗
- Who funds GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN ↗
- Who funds DES MOINES SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds DES MOINES PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds IOWA PBS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DES MOINES SYMPHONY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHILDSERVE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER DES MOINES ↗
- Who funds YOUNG WOMEN'S RESOURCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds MEALS FROM THE HEARTLAND INC ↗
- Who funds Ely Area Food Shelf ↗
- Who funds SALISBURY HOUSE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HEARTLAND YOUTH CHOIR ↗
- Who funds Cass Resources for Enrichment ↗
- Who funds WEST DES MOINES LIBRARY FRIENDS ↗
- Who funds CHRYSALIS FOUNDATION ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Meredith Corporation Foundation · Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino Inc · The Merchants Bonding Company Foundation · Bravo Greater Des Moines Inc · EMC Insurance Foundation · Gartner Family Foundation % Michael G Gartner · William C Knapp Charitable Fdn · Bookey Family Foundation · Athene Charitable Foundation · Obrien Fitzpatrick Foundation · Brenton Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization John H & Ann Ghrist Family Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.
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Find your warmest path to John H & Ann Ghrist Family Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.